


Sword and Shield

by reinadefuego



Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: ncis_drabble, Drabble, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 17:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10768620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reinadefuego/pseuds/reinadefuego
Summary: A house divided cannot stand. Time is running out, and neither Gibbs nor Kort know when the first shot will be fired.Written for challenge #532 - "stronger together" at ncis_drabble.





	Sword and Shield

**Author's Note:**

> This continues on from [Saving Grace.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10756713)

_One hour earlier._

"Gibbs, we need to talk."

"Ma'am, I'm on a case, and I'm down an agent."

Her eyes turned cold and harsh as she used her body to block the elevator door. Hayes was well versed in the art of Leroy Jethro Gibbs; she'd learnt from Vance himself that words were cheap and easily wasted with him. "You're going to have a _dead_ agent if we don't."

"I don't care who you were, you don't threaten my —"

She hit the emergency stop button and the elevator came to a shuddering halt. Maybe now this arrogant bastard would listen. Charlie slid a piece of paper loose from her belt and handed it to him, her grip tight so as to hide the tremor affecting her hand. On it were two photos, names, and coordinates. A kill order.

"The CIA knows it was a con job. In ninety minutes, they'll be dead, and I can't intervene," she said. "Message DiNozzo and tell him 'get out, they've sent Delta.' Kort will know what it means."

"He said those days were behind you two." Years ago he might have felt sorry for her, now there was only apathy. She'd chosen to never fully cut ties with her former employer, unlike Trent. Gibbs flicked the switch and they resumed their descent. An hour to get there, save DiNozzo and Kort, or watch his family die — what other choice did he have?

"Palach," Gibbs addressed her by her call sign. He stepped out once the elevator doors opened. "If I shoot, people will die."

"If you don't, Gunny, we'll all die. Set your radio to Hell's frequency."

* * *

"I'm not leaving, Trent."

"They'll kill you, Tony, I can't —" He struggled to hide his trembling hands; the adrenaline was already leeching into his blood stream and his pupils had dilated. His body was anticipating the fight, the feeling of exhilaration. The knowledge that two seconds was the difference between life and death had kept him in his prime as a fighter, and now that the tables had turned, Trent wasn't so sure he could be those few seconds faster.

"I'm a federal agent, I can handle myself. Let me help," Tony persisted, adjusting and securing the straps on a flak vest he found. Delta — he'd heard it once before, he realised, when Trent was lost in a nightmare and muttering to himself. Part of that elusive past he didn't talk about.

"You don't know them," he countered, lifting a Desert Eagle off the table and making sure there was a round chambered, "how brutal they are." Why couldn't he see there were some things they needed to do separately? "Please, just get in the safe room!"

"How many of them will come, Trent?"

 _Damn it!_ "It depends."

"At best?"

"Palach."

One person, a lethal CIA-turned-NCIS agent, who he wouldn't ever admit to liking for the simple fact she was one of his bosses, he could handle. "At worst?"

"Palach and four others. We'll be dead inside of ten minutes."


End file.
